If you’re passing by St. Paul’s Harriet Island around midday today, you will probably see dozens of kites aloft. What you won’t be able to see from a distance is that each of the kites is carrying a wish.

Marcus Young is the creator of “Wishes For the Sky,” an Earth Day event on Harriet Island.

MPR Photo/Chris Roberts

The event is called “Wishes For the Sky,” and it’s being held in conjunction with Earth Day. MPR’s Chris Roberts met up with the event’s organizer, artist Marcus Young.

“We felt that we needed a civic, a very public ritual to practice good wish-making,” Young said.

Young sounds almost like a psycho-analyst when he explains why that need exists.

“I don’t think we know ourselves very well,” he said.

“Wishes for the Sky” has been held for the last five years on or near Earth Day, to help people publicly express their wishes, for the earth, and for themselves.

“A wish, what is a wish?” Young asked. “Let’s break it down. It’s ourselves, our good selves, talking to us.”

Young strongly believes that we need to take time from our busy lives and listen to what our hearts are telling us.

“I think that really can change the world,” he said.

But for wishes to change the world, they have to be in the world, at least symbolically. The kites are actually Young’s plan b.

“I would teach people to write their wishes on clouds,” he said.

Kites are the next best thing. They transport the wishes into the air and wind.